REAL ESTATE FILING FEE RISES AGAIN

People who buy real estate in Riverside County soon will begin paying a $10 document filing fee — more than triple a previous charge — to fund a $4 million, 21-staffer expansion of the district attorney’s real estate fraud investigation unit.

Besides beefing up the unit’s presence in Riverside, the county seat, the increase is going to fund the establishment of two satellite regional offices, one in Southwest County, said District Attorney Paul Zellerbach.

The Riverside County board of supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to grant Zellerbach’s request to boost, from $6 to $10, a supplemental fee charged in connection with the filing and recording of real estate documents. The vote also approved applying the fee to a wider range of documents. The board previously had raised the fee from $3 to $6 while rejecting the top prosecutor’s call to boost it to $10, saying he had not justified why it should be more than tripled.

Supervisor Kevin Jeffries of Lakeland Village, who voted against raising the fee at all in February, said Zellerbach made clear in a new report what the extra money would be used for, so he dropped his opposition.

“I agree,” Supervisor Marion Ashley said. “There has been a very compelling case made by the district attorney.”

According to the report, the $10 charge takes effect March 26.

Supervisors scheduled a review of the program in 2017.

Zellerbach has been arguing that his staff is overwhelmed by real estate fraud cases and cannot come close to investigating them all.

“The filing fee increase to $6 as approved by the board on February 5, 2013, will have some positive impact on the underfunding problem but will fall far short of providing the necessary resources for a comprehensive plan,” Zellerbach wrote in the report.

He said at $6, the fee would have boosted revenue for the fraud unit from the current $1 million a year to $2.8 million. But with the fee set at $10, annual revenue will climb to nearly $5 million.

With that higher amount, Zellerbach said he plans to add 21 people, boosting the unit’s staff to 30 full-time employees. He said he will hire people with expertise in examining computers and documents, create new five-person regional offices in Southwest County and Indio, and set up a toll-free real estate fraud hotline.

The regional offices each would be staffed by two investigators, one deputy district attorney, one investigative technician and one legal support person, the report stated.

Zellerbach said the satellite offices will enable investigators to focus on problems prevalent in the different regions, such as the incidences of investor fraud that have hammered Southwest County.

As for the district attorney’s Riverside headquarters, it would add three investigators and a commander to oversee all real estate fraud investigations countywide.

New specialists would include a forensic accountant, with two accounting assistants, as well as a real estate fraud document examiner and a forensic computer analyst able to extract evidence from computers and electronic devices, the report stated.